Why hasn't Simply sent a refund?

I ordered a Fuji HS10 digital camera online and made a payment for an extended guarantee on 23 December.

I paid £253.90 using my wife’s debit card and was told the delivery date was two to seven working days.

I emailed Simply Electronics at the start of the new year and the company kept promising to deliver the camera as soon as possible.

When I had received nothing by 7 January, I decided to cancel the order. By 10 February I was told payment would be made in due course.
Ian Mitchell
 
We worked it out that with the holiday period, the fact that the camera had not arrived by 7 January was not surprising and Mr Mitchell agreed.

Many retailers were desperately trying to deliver a backlog of orders because of the snow last Christmas.

What angered him was that he kept being told the camera had been dispatched but it never arrived. He should have received his refund by now. Simply is allowed only 30 days under the Distance Selling Regulations (DSRs) in which to make a refund after an order is cancelled.

Mr Mitchell told us that he had contacted his bank and it was investigating the payment. He passed on this information to Simply and initially this seemed to provide the necessary stimulus to begin processing his refund.

But by 16 February Mr Mitchell still had not heard from the company. We contacted Simply and were told that the refund had been made to Mrs Mitchell’s account on 14 February.

Mr Mitchell then got his wife to check that the refund had gone into her account. We advised him that it may take a few days to process but the money was back in his account by 18 February.

We always advise people who buy online to use a credit card whenever possible. These cards are covered by section 75 of the Consumer Credit Act for goods that have cost £100.01 up to £30,000.

But beware the sting in the tail when using credit cards. It is not common knowledge but there is a lack of protection for secondary cardholders. In these cases unless the purchase has been made for the benefit of the primary card holder, many banks will not apply section 75 of the Consumer Credit Act for these cardholders.

If you use a Visa debit card you will have some protection (see below).

The only thing to be aware of is that individual banks have their own terms and conditions about how the consumer is covered with this protection.

Protection for debit cards
Visa debit and credit card consumer protection regulations allow banks, on behalf of their cardholders, to seek financial redress from a merchant’s bank if the cardholder has bought goods or services that are not delivered.

Importantly the protection also applies if the buyer is a victim of fraud. The one drawback is a bank can apply its own terms and conditions; so consumers should check out their bank’s policy on this. Unlike with credit card protection, there is no lower or upper limit on the value of goods or services to be refunded.